Another Davejade High School AU Fic
by Fluorescence-Future
Summary: Jade (and Davejade) had a lot of wasted potential in Homestuck so fuck it here have another high school AU with Davejade in it. BTW the cover is drawn by me!
1. Lunch Time

"Alright, listen to this."

Dave pressed the spacebar on his laptop and a sick beat started to play, echoing in the cafeteria. Karkat sat next to him, unimpressed. "Can you please stop making music and focus on our project?!" Dave held up his hand. "Wait wait wait, this is the best part."

The beat dropped. "Once I'm done with the words, this will be the hottest song on the charts."

Karkat yanked the laptop away from Dave and opened their presentation. The slide was titled _"The Biology of Crocodiles"_. Karkat turned to Dave. "The biology of any animal in the universe and you chose crocodiles?"

"Karkat, bro, crocodiles are rad. Check the whole presentation, I spent all night on that thing."

Karkat went to the next slide. It was filled with crude drawings of crocodiles, which he could only barely make out through all the jpeg artifacts. Written in Comic Sans was the description that said "crocodiles are fuckin sweet".

Karkat looked up at Dave, who had no expression on his face. "Keep going," he said.

Karkat furiously skimmed over every slide, which seemed to get more shitty as it went on.

Karkat slammed the screen down. "THIS ISN'T YOUR SHITTY COMIC!" Dave continued sipping his apple juice nonchalantly. Karkat slapped it out of his hands and into another student.

"What the fuck dude? That apple juice was too good to waste on Equius' sweaty face."

Karkat shook a pointed finger at him. "Mrs. Pyrope's going to look at our progress this afternoon, so FIX IT BEFORE THEN."

Dave put his hands up. "Fine, fine. Jegus, dude."

Karkat turned away steaming, leaving his tray on the table. Dave looked around warily then stole his apple juice.

Dave heard a clacking sound behind him. He'd know that clack anywhere. "Sup Terezi."

Terezi was holding her lunch tray and clacking her walking stick against the table. "What happened this time?"

"I fucked up our project. Made it all SBAHJ-y."

Terezi sat down and grinned. "Aww, I wish I was here to see that! Hear that. Whatever." Her tray was filled with brightly-colored food, with bright red apples and neon green Jello. "You are going to fix it before my mom sees, right?"

Dave opened his laptop and clicked on a different presentation. It had the same title but in Times New Roman font with appropriate visuals and text. "Nah, it was just a dumbass prank, with inspiration from John. It was worth it."

Terezi gasped. "But you never listen to John's prank ideas!"

Dave put up a declarative finger. "Inspiration is the key word here. Besides, it was to piss off Karkat."

"Ha! That's easy to do," Terezi said.

Dave stopped sipping the juice and grimaced at it. "Dammit, why did I have to mention piss?" He chucked it at the garbage can. It landed in Tavros' tray.

"What did you do?" she asked.

"I chucked it at the can."

"Nice throw!" Terezi grinned. "Wait, it did land, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then nice throw!"

"Thanks."

They sat in silence as they they ate. Then Terezi waved her hand. "Hey Karkat!"

Karkat was jogging back to their table. "I met John in the hallway. That was a REAL FUNNY PRANK, Strider."

Dave smiled cockily. "I know, right?"

Karkat rolled his eyes and sat back down. "Hey, where's my apple juice?" Terezi pointed at the lunch lady. "In the trash bin." Dave pointed at his stomach. "And in here too."

"Strider, I swear...at least I still have the rest of my lunch." He picked up his sandwich.

"Wait, what was John doing in the hallway at lunch?" Dave asked.

Karkat put his sandwich down. "I thought he was going to load someone's locker with water balloons or something, but instead he was showing some people around."

Terezi leaned forward, interested. "Really? Who?" Dave nodded. "Yeah, who the hell arrives in the middle of the day?"

"They were a boy and girl. Cousins, I think. Apparently they used to live on a private island in the Pacific, which I think is bullshit, and they wanted to try going to an actual school, and not just take online ones all the time."

"What were they like?" Terezi asked.

"The boy talked like an old man and winked at Vriska, and the girl was acting like the school was some sort of space station."

Dave whistled. "They won't last a week."

"They won't."

The bell rang. Karkat looked down at his uneaten lunch. Then he stuffed the whole sandwich in his mouth and chewed rapidly. He swallowed with difficulty and gasped. "Let's go."

"C'mon, Dave!" Terezi yelled. "Mom's gonna be so pissed if you're late! Then she's gonna be mad at me for being your friend! So speed up!"

Dave tried his best as everyone else was also running to their class.

Kankri was on the side of the hallway blowing his whistle. He was wearing a "Hall Monitor" sash. "Running isn't allowed in the halls! You might trigger people with disabilities! Wait, Tavros, don't wheel so fast! You might trigger people who were in car accidents!" He blew his whistle until his face burned red.

Dave was so entranced by the rush and stupidity that he crashed into someone.

That someone was a girl who he had never seen before. _This must be the girl Karkat was talking about_ , Dave thought.

She immediately stood up and tried to help Dave up. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" Her brows were knitted in a frown.

He stood up and said, "I'm fine."

She made sure that all of her books were in her hands, then she sighed in relief. "Sorry. I'm new here, so I didn't know everything would be so crazy when the bell rang."

Dave shrugged. "It's crazy all the time here."

The girl giggled. "What's with the shades? Are you some kind of coolkid?"

Dave did a coolguy pose. "As a matter of fact, I am. I'm the coolest kid around. So cool that when I drop a song, everyone stops what they're doing just to get it on their phones. I'm so rad, when I enter restaurants, people whisper to each other 'Oh my god, it's him. It's Dave Strider.'"

Then unexpectedly, her eyes sparkled in awe. "Do they?"

Okay. He wasn't expecting her to take it seriously. He looked around. No one was paying attention.

"They do."

She gasped. "Woooow. Soooo coool."

"I know."

"Dave! Move your ass before mom roasts mine!"

Dave yelled back, "Wait up!" and turned back to the girl. She said apologetically, "Sorry for holding you up! You should get to class."

"Yeah."

He started to run, but he looked back.

"Hang on, what's your name?"

She smiled. "Jade Harley."

A whistle blew. Kankri was pointing at them. "Stop bonding! You're going to trigger people with social anxiety!"

Dave gave her double pistols and a wink, then rushed over to the Biology room.


	2. First Class

"Uh oh."

Jade was worried. She managed to get all her books, but the directory was gone. She could _not_ be late. It was her first day, _and_ it she missed half of it already!

She tried to ask other students, but they were all busy rushing to their classes. The hall monitor was busy too, blowing on his whistle and trying to get everyone to walk while yelling about triggers.

She sighed. Being in an actual school can be really overwhelming, and she didn't even have a class yet!

Jade felt stupid for not checking earlier. If she checked earlier, she could've asked Dave. He seemed nice enough. He was so cool too! She couldn't believe that the first person she met in school was one of the popular kids!

Jade realized she could ask the hall monitor. She appoached him nervously. "Hey there!"

The monitor put down his whistle. "Your voice is too loud. May I help you?"

"I'm new here. Do you where the Biology room is?"

He pointed to a teal door at the far side of the hall. "Over there. No running."

"Thanks!"

Phew! Well, that wasn't so bad. She speed-walked over and opened it to the eyes of a classroom full of students and an intimidating teacher.

The teacher smiled, but her eye twitched. "Yes?" Her glasses were tinted red, which made her eyes look like they were about to shoot lasers at her.

"Uh..."

Then the teacher did something weird. She started sniffing Jade all around. Then she straightened up.

"Ah, nevermind. New student. Go find a seat."

Jade walked over to an empty seat, sat down, and started to bring out her textbook. That was embarrassing. At least she didn't yell at her.

"Jade?"

It came from the seat next to her. Sitting there was Dave.

He was leaning forward and his eyebrows were raised. "So you have Biology with me."

She blinked. "I guess I do."

"Huh."

Dave looked off to the side, then back to Jade. "You're lucky you're a new student, y'know. Mrs. Pyrope _really_ doesn't like tardiness. My friends and I got yelled at. Really loud."

"Oooh. Do your ears hurt?"

"My ears feel like a fuckin bee flew into them and decided to start a hive there and now he has a wife and kids and they're all buzzing at the same time then his wife and co-worker start cheating on him in the bedroom and the bee comes home and is like 'Frank I thought you were my friend why are you fucking my wife' and his wife's trying to explain then the bee pulls out a gun and tries to shoot Frank and the kids are like 'what's going on?' then the bee realizes how shitty his life is and he shoots himself and now everyone's screaming."

She stared at him in silence.

"My point is my ears are still ringing."

"It's okay, I got it. That was pretty funny."

"Thanks."

"Students!"

Everyone turned to Mrs. Pyrope. "Your only task for today is to go to your partners and review your presentations for next Monday. I'll be checking up on everyone's progress."

Jade turned to Dave. "You already have a project on the second day? What about lessons?"

Dave shrugged. "Meet Mrs. Pyrope." He turned around to his partner.

Jade raised her hand. "Uh, Mrs. Pyrope?"

"Yes?"

"What is the project about?"

"You have to make a presentation on the biology of a reptile. I have a particular affinity for dragons, if you want to know."

"But dragons aren't real?"

"Any more slander in my class and you're getting a warning." Mrs. Pyrope sat down and turned her attention to a crime thriller book.

Jade leaned back in her chair and tapped the desk with her fingers. She thought of writing up a bunch of bullshit about dragons just for the extra points, but realized that Mrs. Pyrope being who she is would have called her out easily. Well, she always loved iguanas, especially when they went "thip".

After looking through her books and writing what she knew, she had a decent outline for her presentation. Then she realized she didn't have a partner.

She looked around, desperate for anyone who wasn't paired up. Unfortunately, the class was an even number. She raised her hand again.

"Mrs. Pyrope, I don't have a partner."

She didn't look up from her book. "Join someone or do it by yourself."

Jade frowned and turned to Dave. "Are all the teachers this mean?"

"If you think that's mean, you should see Principal Peixes." He watched his partner smash keys on his laptop. "But no, not every teacher. In fact, a lot of them are just weird."

He leaned over. "For example, our Vice Principal slash Physics teacher, Doc Scratch. He only talks to the girls in class and he's always going on and on about futility and space-time shit. He introuced himself to us by calling him the 'friendly uncle who gives you candy'."

"I don't see why that's weird. Aren't candy and relatives good things?" she asked.

He frowned. "Wow, you _really_ needed to get out of your house. Speaking of which, Karkat here said you and your cousin lived on a private island."

Jade nodded. "Yep! It had a volcano and everything!"

Karkat stopped typing and squinted at her. "A volcano."

"Yeah. When Jake would go out to hunt the wild animals, he'd always find these huge pumpkin orchards. But every time he'd go back and harvest some, he couldn't find them again."

Dave nodded. "Wild animals and phantom pumpkin orchards. Sure."

"And our mansion had these really cool gadgets and it was all high-tech and stuff! We had transportalizers and wardrobifiers and things like that!"

"Transportalizers and wardrobifiers?" Karkat rolled his eyes. "You aren't even trying anymore."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Dave held up his hands. "I'm going to be nice here, because you're new. No one will like you if you keep acting like that."

"Acting like what?"

Karkat turned back to the laptop. "No one wants to be friends with a liar. Especially one as bad as you."

Jade crossed her arms. "But I'm not lying. My island really is like that!"

"You don't have an island!" Karkat yelled.

"Mr. Vantas!"

Mrs. Pyrope was glaring at him over her novel. "What did I say about outbursts during class? Save it for dismissal."

A girl with the same glasses as Mrs. Pyrope snickered from a nearby table. Karkat muttered an apology and went back to the laptop.

"Wait a minute. I forgot." Mrs. Pyrope put down her book and stood up. She cleared her throat and said, "Sorry class, I forgot to introduce our new classmate. Jade, will you get up and go to the front?"

Jade stood up and walked to the front of the classroom. Most of the students were still working at their desks and only a few people were paying close attention.

"This is Jade Harley. That surname should sound familiar to you, because she's the granddaughter of scientist and co-founder of Skaianet Jake Harley, who discovered multiple new species in his remote Pacific island, and so is a significant figure in the fields of physics and biology. And yes, that's on the test later this quarter."

Jade smiled and waved. Mrs. Pyrope yawned and said, "Sorry. You can go back to your seat."

Jade walked back to her seat proudly. Dave and Karkat were staring at her in shock.

Jade turned to them smugly and said, "My cousin Jake English is also around, whose grandmother is Jade English, as in Jade English the other co-founder of Skaianet, as in the company that made that laptop."

Karkat and Dave checked the logo on the laptop. It was a green diamond with the letters "SN" etched into it.

Karkat grimaced. "How was I supposed to know you were the grandkid of the guy who made Skaianet?"

Jade shrugged and the bell rang. She started packing her thing back into her backpack.

"Hey, Jade?"

Dave, Karkat, and the girl with the glasses were standing next to her chair. Dave asked, "Can you help us out with our project?"

"What?"

Karkat crossed his arms. "You're Jake Harley's granddaughter and you lived in a tropical island with a bunch of wild animals. You probably know something about the crocodile species on that island."

"Well, I don't know anything about anatomy, but I do know things like mating seasons and food."

Dave put his hands together and pointed them at her. "Soooo, are you saying yes?"

Jade considered this. Hey, she wanted to make friends, didn't she? This could be a good opportunity! Plus, Dave's one of the coolkids! Hanging out with him and his friends would make her feel _so cooool_.

"Yeah, why not?"

"Great!" Karkat clasped his hands. "After school. Where do we meet?"

Jade thought for a moment. "How about my place? You can see the transportalizers and stuff in person!"

Dave said, "Sounds great." He looked at his watch. "It's almost time for the next class."

"Oh! Speaking of which, I dropped my directory, so can you guys help me out with directions?"

The girl answered, "Sure. What's your next class?" She stuck out her hand next to Jade. "I'm Terezi, by the way. Mrs. Pyrope's my mom and she's way meaner at home."

Jade shook her hand then looked at the piece of paper they gave her. "Music."

Dave raised an eyebrow. "You're in my class again. What's the class after that?"

"Spanish."

"Oh, good. I'm having Algebra. That was getting a little creepy."

"A little."

Karkat yelled from the door. "Are we going or not?"

Terezi stuck out her cane. "C'mon. Let's go before he explodes."


	3. Rediscover Fusion

"I don't mean to be rude, but you suck."

Jade pulled the flute away and made a face at it. "I know, right?" She tapped it onto the music stand. "Back at the island, we had a flute lying around the house. Sometimes I'd pick it up and try to play it, but I always sounded awful so I'd throw it away and take a nap."

Dave leaned over the music stand and looked over at the other side of the room. On the whiteboard were the teacher's instructions: "I've got a hangover, so practice on an instrument for a class presentation because I was too lazy to fix a curriculum for the school year."

Next to the board was his brother, Dirk, who was staring at Jake English while pretending to play the triangle. His half-sister Roxy was sitting behind Dirk and teasing him.

"What do you play?" asked Jade.

"Turntables and FL Studio. I had drum lessons for six months when I was like seven. Then I never picked up a drumstick again. Mostly because we couldnt afford a drumkit." Dave shrugged. "Does Jake play any instruments?"

"He plays the handguns." She gave Dave double pistols and a wink. "Bang bang!"

"Wait, what? But isn't Jake, like, sixteen? Where did he get them?"

"From our grandparents! I got some of Grandpa's rifles when he died. And I know how to use them." She imitated cocking a rifle. "Pew pew!"

She put down her invisible rifle and looked at Dirk. "Is that your brother?"

"Yeah."

"He's got cool shades too. I think I saw those in an anime, I forgot the name..."

"Was it a hentai?"

"What? No! What kind of girl do you think I am?"

"You must be Jade."

Dave looked up to see his half-sister Rose standing next to them, holding her violin.

"Oh. Jade, this is Rose, she's my half-sister."

Jade bounced up and held out her hand. "Hi! I'm Jade Harley! Nice to meet you!"

Rose shook it. "The pleasure is all mine. I couldn't help but overhear you having trouble with the flute."

"Yeah, she's horrible," Dave said.

Jade stuck her tongue out at him and turned back to Rose. "He's right, though. Are you having trouble with the violin too?"

"No, I've known how to play since I was eight."

Jade blushed in embarrassment. "Oh."

"Do you play anything?"

"Yeah!" Jade straightened up. "I play bass guitar."

Dave raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"We had a lot of instruments lying around the house so I picked one and I taught myself how to play."

Rose smiled. "Self-taught. Impressive."

Jade blushed in embarrassment. "Thanks."

"So is it true that you and your cousin lived on a private island in the Pacific? Or was it just empty rumors?"

"It's all true. Our grandparents were the co-founders of Skaianet."

"Amazing. What does it feel like having famous grandparents? Did you have to deal with obnoxious journalists pestering you to disclose the secrets of the Harley-English family?"

Jade twirled a lock of her hair with her finger. "Not a lot of times. We managed to avoid it when Grandpa died 'cause we were still really young, but when Grandma died we got so many e-mails asking us to share _everything_ about our grandparents. It was really annoying! It's fine now."

She grinned. "What does it feel like having a popular brother?"

Rose raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, what?"

Dave turned pale and tried to look busy.

"Well, it's not really the same thing, but y'know, since we're teenagers, I bet it's is a big deal. Having a brother who's one of the most popular kids in school must be awesome!"

Rose looked over at Dave. "Riiight."

"I've only watched TV shows before, so is it true? Does his popularity leak over to his siblings?"

"Maybe. I haven't noticed anything. Ask Dirk or Roxy, maybe they can answer you."

"Sure!"

"Alright. It was nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too! See ya!"

"See you." Rose shot a look at Dave that said, "We're having a talk later" before leaving.

Jade tilted her head. "Huh. She got kind of blunt there." She turned to Dave. "Is she jealous or something?"

Dave attempted to shrug casually. "I have no idea. You never know with family right?"

"I guess," she replied.

He sat on the floor, took out his Skaianet laptop and woke it up. He opened one of his unfinished tracks and started working on it.

Jade sat next to him and smiled. "You did say you played Fruity Loops."

"Played what?"

"FL Studio. Fruity Loops. That's what the FL stands for."

"Really? No wonder they call it FL."

"Whaaat? Fruity Loops sounds _way_ more fun!"

"Whatever."

Dave continued editing while Jade watched. He was very aware of Jade pressing lightly on his shoulder.

"Hey, uh, can you not lean on me?"

"Oh, sorry."

"It's cool."

More silence. Dave tried to focus on the song, but he couldn't make it sound the way he wanted it to. He sighed in frustration.

Jade tapped his shoulder. "Can I try? I know my way through the Fruity Loops too."

Dave shrugged and handed it off to Jade.

Dave watched her, impressed with the good progress she was making with the song. He looked around the room.

Roxy was pushing Dirk and telling him to go make a move. Tavros was apparently learning to play the trumpet by having Vriska knock him upside the head every time he made a mistake. Rose was playing an original composition for her girlfriend, Kanaya.

Speaking of which. He turned back to Jade. Well, she's rich, smart, has celebrity relatives, can play the bass, knows how to use a rifle, and admittedly kinda hot. Plus, she thinks he's cool. Then again, the fact that she took him seriously was probably a bad sign. And she can be a bit...innocent. Fine, childish.

But hey, she spent sixteen years of life on a private island surrounded by fancy gadgets with dumb names and everything else a girl could need. It's not her fault. Unless she was able to leave the whole time, which means it's all her fault.

She's kind of a dork too. Okay, maybe he's a dork too, but Jade is a special brand of dork. The kind where they get all excited and bounce around and yell things like "yay!" in public that makes you pretend you don't know that person.

"Done!"

Dave snapped out of his musing. "What?"

Jade handed the laptop back to him. "Well, I guess it's done. Have a listen."

He took the laptop and glanced at Jade, who was smiling but biting her lip in apprehension. With somewhat low expectations, he pressed play.

The strains of the song filled his ears. Oh my god. It's...not that bad.

"Huh. It's pretty good. Better than what I expected at least."

Jade blushed. "Well, thank you."

"Alright, time to give it a title. Something interesting. Something that sounds cool, but also sounds deep. That way, people think the song actually means something, but in reality it means nothing. It's just a fire song."

Jade tapped her finger on her chin in thought. "How about...Rediscover Fusion?"

"Rad." Dave clicked "Export Track" and typed "Rediscover Fusion" in the title bar.

Jade tapped him on the shoulder. "I have a song of my own that could need some tuning." She rubbed her arm. "If you wanna, we could work together on that one too. If you'd like."

"Karkat and I are still going to your place, right?"

"Oh yeah. I'll still help you."

"If we have time I could check it out, see what magic I could work."

"Cool! Thanks so much...dude." She giggled.

"Nice one."

The bell rang. Jade jumped up and dusted off her skirt.

"Well! See ya later, Dave!"

She started to leave, but she turned back around.

"Uh, are either of you scared of dogs?"

"Unless they're threatening to tear me into shreds and serve me at the next neighborhood barbecue, no."

"Great! Alright, bye!" She grabbed her backpack and darted out of the room.

"See ya."

Hey it's me, M. Thanks for reading this. I started this as a writing practice and sideproject. It's surprising that people actually want to read my stuff, so thanks so much you guys. You're the real coolkids.


End file.
